So here’s an URWERK you cannot put on your wrist or pocket or even on a table. Meet the SpaceTime Blades series which does take a familiar concept, nixie clocks (although there have been a couple of people who have done nixie watches), and super sizes it. If it looks familiar, it was previously available as a one-off for the Only Watch auction.

How super-sized is it? Well it’s 170 cm high and 20 kgs worth of metal and glass.

Comprising 1,445 components, there are eight nixie bulbs (88 components per nixie unit) showing the time (hour, minute, seconds, 1/10 and 1/100 of a second, and distance (Earth’s rotation and revolution in kms), with the electronics in the ‘spine’ of the ‘blades’.

The bases are oversized URWERK crowns that are bronze and patinated black. They are created by a specialist in lost-wax casting who created a wax model which was used as the basis to create the mold for the bronze cast.

Atop the base is a glass dome with a rounded top that protects the SpaceTime Blade indications. Beneath it are eight handmade oblong-shaped nixie bulbs made by a glass blower called Votrubec near Novy Bor.

The remote control for this timepiece is designed like a (very solid and heavy) laser sabre, with eight display modes on offer ranging from time measurement to distance calculation:
Position 1: Indication of the hours, minutes and seconds.
Position 2: Indication of the hours, minutes, seconds, 1/10ths and 1/100ths of a second.
Position 3: Indication of the day, month and year.
Position 4: Indication of the Earth’s daily rotation expressed in kilometers (measured at the Equator – counter over a period of one day).
Position 5: Indication of the Earth’s revolution around the Sun expressed
in kilometers (counter over a one-day period).
Position 6: Indication of the earth’s revolution around the Sun expressed
in kilometers (counter over a one-year period).
Position 7: Shuffle mode.
Position 8: Pause mode.

They are shipped in a very practical box that can double as a side table.

Both impressive and fun to have (especially the shuffle mode) in well, any room, even though the ‘light sabre’ is only a contro, it is limited to thirty-three pieces with an RRP of CHF 55,000.

Categories: Clocks, Hands-on, Limited Editions, URWERK